thrashing

noun

thrash·​ing ˈthra-shiŋ 

plural thrashings

1

: a severe beating or flogging

If a poacher was taken he was given a thrashing as well as being prosecuted with its consequent jail sentence.

—W. Mostyn Thomas

"They called her a little blue ragamuffin, father," said Harry, who ran in looking very angry. "But I have given it to them. They won't insult my sister again. I have given them a thrashing they will remember."

—Anna Sewell

2

: a dominating defeat of an opponent

… after going 6-5 on a tough road trip that concluded with 9-2 and 12-4 thrashings of the Giants last weekend, they were 57-41 …

—Phil Taylor

Examples of thrashing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Sunday, the Suns suffered their most lopsided loss of the season, a 39-point thrashing at the hands of the Houston Rockets. —Bobby Krivitsky, Forbes.com, 31 Mar. 2025

About 70 percent of the sounds were accompanied by a calm, swaying body movement, while 25 percent came with vigorous thrashing of the head or body. —Sara Hashemi, Smithsonian Magazine, 26 Mar. 2025

Its latest victory came at San Mamés on Sunday—a 7-1 thrashing of sorry Real Valladolid. —Henry Flynn, Forbes, 25 Feb. 2025

Webster is set to compete for a starting role with regular duo Lewis Dunk and Jan Paul van Hecke, who featured in last Saturday’s 7-0 thrashing at Nottingham Forest. —Andy Naylor, The Athletic, 7 Feb. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1799, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for thrashing

• ashing
• bashing
• caching
• cashing
• clashing
• crashing
• dashing
• flashing
• gnashing
• hashing
• lashing
• mashing